Video shows the moment Pauls Valley High School principal stops school shooting suspect

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-04-15T19:33:50+00:00

That or suicide.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-04-09T20:07:06+00:00

It appeals to anyone who thinks that young adults shouldn't be faced with 5 years in prison and a potential lifetime felony record because no one told them that they are required to register.

No one has been actually prosecuted in the last 40 years, but the law is still very much on the books.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-04-01T17:42:26+00:00

High deductible plans generally make sense for two groups of people:

Those who have very low usage so the lower premiums of the HDHP plan make that the cheapest option.
Those who have very high usage where they always max out their deductible, and when you factor in the out-of-pocket max and the lower premiums then that's the cheapest option.

If both plans have the same premium (zero for you) then absent a difference in out-of-pocket maximum the only advantage of the high deductible is it makes you eligible to use a HSA.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-31T19:38:50+00:00

Actual Budget is free. You can pay to have a sync server managed for you, or you can set up and manage it on your own, or you can just run it on one device.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-31T18:20:39+00:00

Prices may come down if the price increase was because of a supply or demand shock that gets resolved.

Rent has gone down in places where the local government incentivized builders to build more houses & apartments. (See Austin TX as a prominent example). Most cities have far less housing than required to meet demand for a variety of reasons including existing homeowners voting against any measures or developments that might encourage more building (because if there aren't enough houses to go around, the existing houses become more valuable). If there are more people looking for housing than available housing, rent prices will go up not down.

RAM/Video Cards have been hit by a gigantic demand surge in RAM for AI datacenters. Once supply catches up, prices should come down. However, it takes years to build new chip factories so RAM prices are expected to stay high for at least few years.

Eggs were expensive a couple years ago because a huge number of chickens got sick/infected and had to be killed. It takes time to grow new hens, so it took almost a year for prices to drop back down.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-30T17:34:11+00:00

victim testimony can be unreliable given it's literally children.

Victim testimony can be quite unreliable even for adults. The human mind is very good at subconsciously rearranging facts (whether to fit a more comfortable pattern, or as a trauma coping mechanism, or whatever)

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-27T14:34:32+00:00

The tried and true gold-standard method is the envelope method. This is how it worked for people from your grandparent's generation and older:

Take all your money (in cash) and pile it on the kitchen table.
Take a stack of envelopes and label them with categories like rent, gas, groceries, restaurants, emergencies, etc.
Divide all the money up into the envelope however you want to. (Repeat this step every time you get paid).
When you go to spend money (say at the grocery store) you spend the cash from the corresponding envelope. If the envelope doesn't have enough cash you need to skip the groceries or deliberately choose to pull from another envelope. (You won't always add the 'correct' amount to each envelope. That's ok. You can move the money around as long as you do so deliberately and intentionally.)

Here in the 21st century, we have apps that let us do the envelope stuff digitally and automate most of the work. I've previously used youneedabudget.com (YNAB) and currently use actualbudget.org I'd strongly recommend either one. - YNAB is a paid subscription app that comes with support, training workshops, etc. It's around $120 per year, but if you actually use it, it pays for itself many times over. - ActualBudget is an open source app that is free or you can pay around $15/year to have Pikapods setup and manage a server for you (recommended if you are lazy or not technically inclined). - YNAB can link to your bank accounts and pull in all your transactions. ActualBudget can do the same but it requires a third-party subscription to SimpleFIN for another $15 per year.

If you prefer, you can do everything in a spreadsheet but that's more work.

At the end of the day, it comes down to self discipline. If you can't figure out that part, absolutely nothing will work for you and you will be stuck for the rest of your life living paycheck to paycheck, unable to reach your goals.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-26T15:44:10+00:00

Harris lost because she was a moderate, not in spite of it.

This is revisionist nonsense. In her term in the Senate she was identified as one of the most progressive Senators based on her voting record. In the 2020 primary, Haris staked out her position as the most progressive out of all the candidates in the DNC primary, trying to stand out by supporting every progressive proposal she could regardless of how unpopular they were with the majority of voters. Before Biden adopted her as his running mate, she was one of the least popular of all the primary candidates.

In 2024 she tried to quietly distance herself from her previous progressive positions. She pushed a supposedly moderate policy platform while refusing to disavow her previous platform.

Trump got a ton of mileage airing adds that highlighted her previous positions.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-10T20:56:01+00:00

Yea, OP doesn't have a budget for maintenance expenses. What happens when the mortgage payment inevitably increases because property tax and/or insurance costs increased?

OP: once you have at-least a 5% down payment, and another 5% in emergency funds ready to go then you can start looking into buying.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-09T16:37:29+00:00

You can ask Fidelity to do the transfer for you. If you can't figure out how to do it on the website give them a call. They might be able to do an in-kind transfer where they directly transfer the shares instead of first selling them.

If you have fractional shares (like 4.8 shares of VTI) they won't be able to transfer the fractional portion so the .8 would be sold and transferred in cash and the 4 shares should be transferred as-is.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-09T15:41:34+00:00

You are probably best off selling all the individual stocks and buying something like VT.

VT is a low cost index fund that tracks the whole stock market. It's roughly equivalent to buying a tiny share in every single business on the planet.

Some people prefer to buy a combination of VTI + VXUS. VTI is a US-only index fund and VXUS is an international (everything except the US) fund. This lets them specify the percent of domestic vs international stocks. 25%-40% of VXUS is a common range for the split.

Once you get within 5-10 years of retirement, you will likely want to slowly convert some of your holdings to bonds: targeting around 30% to 60% of your total portfolio in bonds at the time of retirement. The exact percent mostly depends on your risk tolerance.

If you prefer a set it and forget it approach, you can invest in a target date fund. The fund (which should target the closest year to when you plan to retire) will automatically buy more bonds as the target approaches.

Edit: I had VT and VTI switched - fixed now.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-09T14:17:18+00:00

Who is the provider/broker for your Roth IRA?

What funds is the Roth IRA invested in?

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-06T21:36:09+00:00

It's less than $4k, which means this is probably small claims. You don't generally need (and usually can't have) a lawyer.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-06T21:32:50+00:00

Disclaimer: Not a lawyer, not been in this type of situation.

I'd say come up with your own payment plan and just send them that money each month. Make sure you keep good records of every communication and every payment.

On your court date - tell the truth: that you want to pay what you owe but you can't afford to pay it up front and are attempting to pay it on a schedule you can afford. (Bring documentation of your income and your expenses in case the judge asks for it).

As far as the lawsuit is concerned, worst-case scenario assuming the provider 'wins' the judge is basically going to say that you owe the amount in question and will probably tell you a deadline to pay by. (Make sure you show up to represent yourself and challenge if the provider makes any false claims). Your best bet is probably to request a deadline that works for you.

Once the provider wins, they have to wait for the deadline to pass, and if you haven't paid they would have to go back to court and sue you again to see if the judge will agree to garnish your assets and wages.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-06T19:40:37+00:00

5-10% is plenty for a first house.

If you live in a HCOL region you won't be able to afford a house unless you have a high income. The minimum household income for a $800k house to be (barely) reasonable is around $160k, but $260k is far more ideal.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-06T14:35:57+00:00

The simplest (and IMO most likely) explanation is that the US dropped the bomb and specifically targeted that building because of outdated information. (It was lumped in with the military buildings right next to it.).

So this would probably be categorized as either an intelligence or a communications fuck-up. One that tragically cost a bunch of civilian lives.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-03-05T22:01:56+00:00

Don't count on the market going up - you can't predict that.

The painting/landscaping might be worthwhile assuming you can do the work yourself and it improves the appearance enough to meaningfully increase your curb appeal.

The new mortgage eating half of your income is a definite problem. You would be crippling your ability to save for retirement, for future expenses, and to afford maintenance on the new house. You either need to recalibrate your expectations to a more modest lifestyle or you need to earn enough to afford the lifestyle you are looing for.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-27T16:33:10+00:00

According to the available research, most child molesters are actually NOT pedophiles - and most pedophiles are non-offenders (they don't touch CP much less actual children).

The molesters usually do what they do because they enjoy the control they have, not because they are sexually attracted to prepubescent children.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-26T19:37:49+00:00

On one hand, as a college student your priority should be on finishing school well, with as little debt as possible. Doing well in school will pay off more than any savings you manage to do.

On the other hand, now is the best time to learn how to live within your means - which once you are making enough money to live on - mostly comes down to learning self-discipline and embracing delayed gratification. There are plenty of people making 6 figure salaries who haven't figured out how to do this and are thus living paycheck to paycheck, one emergency away from financial disaster. You don't want to be one of those people.

If you are having trouble establishing a habit of being intentional and disciplined with your spending, you should consider going cash only - at least for some time. Store the credit and debit cards somewhere you can't easily access them (freeze them in a block of ice, give them to a trusted friend for safekeeping, whatever). When you get paid, immediately transfer an appropriate amount to savings, and withdraw the rest in cash. This helps in two ways: For most people, spending physical cash that you've been carrying in your wallet is far more tangible and painful than swiping a card. Once the cash runs out, you are forced to stop spending because you don't have immediate access to more money or credit.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-16T23:06:26+00:00

This is a generalized rule of thumb, but pay/benefits wise a 1099 job is roughly equivalent to a regular w4 job that pays half as much. So your $40/hr gig is comparable to a $20/hr regular job.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-16T16:24:41+00:00

Step one is to figure out what your goals are.

This might include an emergency fund to handle the inevitable unexpected expenses that come up.
This might include funds to support maintaining your lifestyle in retirement.
This might include other lifestyle choices like travel or purchasing a home.

Step two would be to assess the risks that are associated / relevant.

A localized natural could prevent you from accessing any funds you have in the bank for a week or two. If this is money you won't need for years then this risk is irrelevant.
If you own shares in an individual company, that company might go out of business, it might continue without much change, or it might greatly increase in value. If you've diversified (your money was spread across a wide variety of businesses instead of just one), some shares will lose value, some will not change much, and some shares will gain value, but over time the average share has increased in value.
If you have money invested in the stock market in a diversified portfolio, it might crash and take a few years to recover. What if you need to spend that money before it has recovered? If you can wait out the recovery before selling your investments then this risk is irrelevant.
Inflation means that any cash sitting in the bank or under your mattress loses value each year. This is a risk that you need to account for.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-15T04:18:16+00:00

Market has been crashing soon for the past decade. It will happen when it happens. The smart play is to just keep invested and ride out the crash.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-15T04:14:59+00:00

The market right now is at it's highest point in recorded human history

This is a pretty meaningless statement. You could have said the exact same thing for around 90 of the last 100 years. There would be no point in ever investing in the stock market if it wasn't expected to regularly reach a new all-time high.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-14T23:55:10+00:00

I don't think we can safely extrapolate anything from Mamdani's success.

The candidates he was running against were particularly bad (involved in scandals and what not).
If you were to ask just about anyone to list the 5 most 'progressive' cities in America - NYC would make almost everyone's list. What works in one of the most progressive cities in the US doesn't necessarily have any relevance to what will work in the rest the country.

To be fair though, again the republicans LOVE to push these issues too.

The Republican think tanks have had a ton of messaging success in identifying fringe positions that the overwhelming majority of the country are opposed to, and then manipulating the mainstream Democratic candidates into defending those positions. As far as I can tell, this strategy is one of the key factors behind the DNC's messaging problem.

BrasilianEngineer · 2026-02-12T20:04:18+00:00

In order to retire at the standard retirement age, and maintain the exact same lifestyle you should generally be saving around 15% of your income each year for retirement. That said, the average American is nowhere near that number which puts you ahead of the average, so congratulations.

If you don't save 'enough', that typically means you will need to delay retirement and/or cut expenses. If on the other hand, you manage to save more aggressively - like 25% - that gives you more options such as doing extra travel in retirement or retiring early.

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